CLELEjournal (Nov 2014)
Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are as an Example of Teaching Visual Literacy
Abstract
This paper attempts to re-evaluate Maurice Sendak’s masterpiece Where the Wild Things Are in light of the more recent trends in teaching English as a foreign language. It has, for instance, become indisputable that today’s visual culture requires students to be visually literate, that is to be able to deal with visual images both receptively (comprehending and interpreting) and productively (creating and producing). Assuming this perspective, and referring also to ideological critique, the potential of Sendak’s work to aid students in their development of these competencies is assessed and briefly exemplified. It will be argued that Where the Wild Things Are is particularly conducive to fostering receptive visual literacy as it requires students to consider the relation between verbal and visual texts and forces them to engage in ‘reading the images’ (Oakley, 2010, p. 4). A focus on this relationship also opens up opportunities for the development of productive visual literacy.
